The Collaborative International Dictionary
Ere \Ere\ ([=a]r or [^a]r; 277), prep. & adv. [AS. [=ae]r, prep., adv., & conj.; akin to OS., OFries., & OHG. [=e]r, G. eher, D. eer, Icel. [=a]r, Goth. air. [root]204. Cf. Early, Erst, Or, adv.]
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Before; sooner than. [Archaic or Poetic]
Myself was stirring ere the break of day.
--Shak.Ere sails were spread new oceans to explore.
--Dryden.Sir, come down ere my child die.
--John iv. 49. -
Rather than.
I will be thrown into Etna, . . . ere I will leave her.
--Shak.Ere long, before, shortly.
--Shak.Ere now, formerly, heretofore.
--Shak.Ere that, & Or are. Same as Ere.
--Shak.
Usage examples of "ere that".
And ere that again, leada, laida, all unraidy, too faint to buoy the fairiest rider, too frail to flirt with a cygnet's plume, she was licked by a hound, Chirripa-Chirruta, while poing her pee, pure and simple, on the spur of the hill in old Kippure, in birdsong and shearingtime, but first of all, worst of all, the wiggly livvly, she sideslipped out by a gap in the Devil's glen while Sally her nurse was sound asleep in a sloot and, feefee fiefie, fell over a spillway before she found her stride and lay and .
The spike above the two axebits was jammed deep into the ancient's chest, ere that sword had come to ground.